2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), at the time of its release, was based on a short story called The Sentinel by Arthur C Clarke. In that story, the roots of the Tycho Monolith plot segment of 2001 of is sketched out, and then expanded as both a screenplay and a full-length novel.
Ill be killed for this but...Lord of the rings.
Like, im sorry book purists but even after reading the books twice.
Tolkien, is and always will be, THE high fantasy author, the one who basically made things we take for granted today.
But the music from Howard Shore.
So many scenes like from how fellowship began, to DEEEAAAATTTTHHH to Sam just being the broest bro to ever exist.
I dont mind all of the cuts and changes they did, i happily return to the movies all year every year, the books? not so much.
heres a controversial opinion: The American Office vs the UK Office.
While I respect the original, Gervais' external antics and the much meaner, darker humor just don't create as good a comedy vehicle that enables the viewer to laugh and have fun and enjoy themselves watching the show
The Magicians: The books were good, but the TV show really was in a class all its own. And it did away with using obscure words just because, that was annoying.
Game of Thrones: At this rate, ASOIAF is never getting done, so I'm by default giving it to the show for actually finishing the job.
Good Omens: The first season brought the book to life, but there wasn't source material beyond that. The second season did a great job fleshing out the characters and moving the story forward into the final season.
Blade runner. Much better than "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" but it is only loosely based off it.
PS: when reading a book after watching a film, it usually feels like the book is much better, fills in details, separates scenes which a film had mixed together or altogether done away with. E.g. The Shining, LotR, Dune...but for Androids I just felt "what, that's it?"
I just went through my entire favorite movie and show list and couldn't find a single one. I can only find ones where the adaptation is great, because it limits its focus while still keeping the overall spirit of the original. Or ones that tell a very different story, but manage to do it well.
Dune, all quiet on the western front (1930s one), total recall, it's a wonderful life, blade runner, I claudius.
Battlestar Galactica (2003) -Originally a mini-seris to pay homage to the original idea through the lens of current events exploded into to what is my favorite show to ever be on television. Informing so much of what TV sci-fi could be after it.
Both film versions of Solaris, though for vastly different reasons. Lem's original novel is super dry and hard sci fi, like most of Lem's work, which isn't my favorite kind of sci fi. Both films really delve into the fascinating psychological questions of the situation Kelvin finds himself in. The Tarkovsky version is the best, unsurprisingly, since Tarkovsky is the GOAT, but I also really enjoy the Soderbergh version with George Clooney. The latter is hollywoodized compared to the Soviet version, but still is a really interesting and gorgeous movie
A lot of Lovecraft adaptations have to be a bit loose (because his stories tend not to lend themselves to films and he wasn't a good person) and are all the better for it - Re-animator, From Beyond, The Color Out of Space, Dagon, etc. plus quite a few fan films.
Flash Gordon film.
The first two Blade films - they struggle to make great Blade comics.
I think the anime adaptation of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End was genuinely better than the manga. Which is saying something, because the manga was already pretty damn good.
The Bocchi the Rock anime vs the Manga. The Manga is by no menas bad, but it is a 4 panel gag affair which has very little of the dynamism and weird jokes of the anime. I really want them to make more of it.
Roadside picnic is a fantastic book that feels thrilling for a scifi story. There's everything you could hope for, from deep philosophical questions to fictional technology that's described in a way that fascinates but doesn't attempt to over-explain; there's political implications to the geopolitics of the time that the authors consider. And at the center, an anti-hero who just wants to get his wish fulfilled and get out of this place, who's willing to make a deal with the devil for it.
To take all that and reimagine it as a long trialogue in an eerily deserted nature reserve/post-apocalyptic wasteland that touches upon all sorts of deep philosophy—from the divine to whether we can truly know ourselves; the struggle between logic and creativity; the vast ineffability of the natural world, not so much as Man vs. Nature conflict but as a reminder of how large and apathetic the natural world is to humanity—while maintaining a strained atmosphere of invisible threats that we never see. I could draw parallels to Dante's Inferno and Sartre's No Exit.
Stalker ending spoiler
Then for the protagonists to leave empty-handed after it all, too afraid to find out who they truly are deep down.
chef's kiss
It is one of the most aesthetically beautiful films I've ever seen, and does something I wish more filmmakers would do: focus on atmosphere rather than plot and action. It sounds boring, but it was a transformative work of art.
It's dark, it's broody, it's strangely serene. I love it so much.
Lord of the Rings. I’ve read the books before watching the movies (I saw them first like 3 years ago) and the books are just… walking…
And they walked…. Walked…. They walked… so much walking…. still walking…. And then walking…